Porridge

SHORT STORY – John Herbert

Image: Esteban Vicente – Bridgehampton Rose (1970) This short story by John Herbert appeared in our second print issue, which is available for purchase here. John Herbert is an English teacher from Brighton, UK, holds a PhD in modernist fiction from the University of Birmingham, and is an alumnus of New Writing South’s Creative Writing…

ONE POEM – Loisa Fenichell

Loisa Fenichell is a Brooklyn-based middle school special education teacher. She recently received her BFA from the aptly named Purchase College, located in Purchase, NY, where she studied Creative Writing and Literature. Her poems have appeared in various publications, including Pink Monkey Magazine, Gandy Dancer, The Rising Phoenix Review, Electric Cereal, and Winter Tangerine Magazine….

ART – Hendrika Seguro-Bigg

This artwork by Hendrika is also featured in Issue Two of Porridge, available for purchase here. Hendrika Seguro-Bigg is an English Literature and Philosophy graduate from the University of Birmingham. Issue Two of Porridge was her first print publication, though she hopes to continue creating, taking inspiration from the world and its people as she leaves for travel…

PHOTOGRAPHY – Keith Moul

Keith Moul is a poet of place, a photographer of the distinction of place. His digital photos strive for a colourful vision with their high contrast and saturation. Both his poems and photos are published widely and available on his website, http://poemsphotosmoul.blogspot.com. Lost Lip (2012) The Arches Provincial Park, Newfoundland Ran Out of…

ONE POEM – Ian C. Smith

Image: Willem de Kooning – Valentine (1947) Ian C Smith’s work has appeared in, Amsterdam Quarterly, Antipodes, Australian Poetry Journal, Critical Survey, Live Encounters, The Stony Thursday Book, and Two-Thirds North. His seventh book is wonder sadness madness joy, Ginninderra (Port Adelaide). He writes in the Gippsland Lakes area of Victoria, and on Flinders Island, Tasmania. Ambrose in…

SHORT STORY – Christopher S. Bell

Christopher S. Bell has been writing and releasing literary and musical works through My Idea of Fun since 2008. His sound projects include Emmett and Mary, Technological Epidemic, C. Scott and the Beltones and Fine Wives. My Idea of Fun is an art and music archive focused on digital preservation with roots in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. (www.myideaoffun.org). Christopher’s work…

ART REVIEW: Where Privacy Meets Paranoia – Melissa Mesku

Melissa Mesku is a writer and editor in NYC. Where Privacy Meets Paranoia Bushwick artist builds a space for viewers to contemplate privacy “There’s people in your head,” artist Thierry Laurent explains, pointing to a silkscreen collage, one in his series of five called The Unknown. The image is dominated by an Illuminati-like eye. Below it,…

TWO POEMS – Josephine Greenland

Josephine Greenland is a British-Swedish writer holding an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham. A prose writer at heart, she is currently working on her first novel. When not writing, she can be seen wandering in the mountains or playing her violin. U-nomia A biological cartographer in a bracken of unclassifieds…

An interview with Wanda Deglane

Wanda Deglane is a psychology/family & human development student at Arizona State University whose poetry has been published or is forthcoming on Dodging the Rain, Rust + Moth, Anti-Heroin Chic, and elsewhere. Earlier this year, Wanda self-published her first book of poetry, Rainlily. Here, we find out more about Wanda’s journey into self-publishing and dig into the…

TWO POEMS – Ricky Garni

Image: ‘St James’ (acrylic on canvas) by the artist Pigcasso, who was saved from the slaughterhouse as a piglet and has taken up painting to international acclaim. Ricky Garni grew up in Florida and Maine, was educated at Exeter and Duke, and has lived off and on in the Triangle since 1977. Over the years he…

ART – Zoe Paterson

Zoe Paterson is an artist and Political Science graduate living in Birmingham. Horror stories are a big influence in her work, which aims to be simultaneously kitsch and unsettling. Her artistic influences include Francis Bacon, Dave McKean and all of the Goosebumps book covers. When she’s not painting, you’ll find her programming, skating, or learning…

ONE POEM – Aimee S. Green

Image: Wassily Kandinsky – Cossacks (1910) Aimee S. Green is an MA student currently living in Birmingham. Aside from working on a novel for her dissertation, she adores experimenting with short story forms and playing with perspective. She shares her poetry and prose on her blog, at https://aimeegreenwriter.wordpress.com/ Bombs Run. Like the bustling of a…

What does feminist dating look like? — Jennifer Maidment

Jennifer Maidment is an intersectional feminist who’s very active within her local community and also very single, so figured she’d would write about her experience/struggles. She’s an aspiring writer and is currently on leave from studying international law as an undergraduate at University of Birmingham. What does feminist dating look like? Meet Jennifer, a Gemini,…

THREE POEMS – Shirley Jones-Luke

Image: JACK WHITTEN, “Black Monolith, II: Homage To Ralph Ellison The Invisible Man,” 1994 (acrylic and mixed media on canvas: molasses, copper, salt, coal ash, chocolate, onion, herbs, rust, eggshell, razor blade). | © Jack Whitten, Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth Shirley Jones-Luke is a poet and a writer from Boston, Mass. She…

POETRY – Ian C Smith

Image: English novelist Evelyn Waugh by Henry Lamb, 1930 Ian C Smith’s work has appeared in Antipodes, Australian Poetry Journal, Critical Survey, Live Encounters, Prole, The Stony Thursday Book, & Two-Thirds North. His seventh book is ‘wonder sadness madness joy’, Ginninderra (Port Adelaide). He writes in the Gippsland Lakesarea of Victoria, and on Flinders Island, Tasmania….

The Object as Concept: Exploring the Role of Materiality in Yoko Ono’s ‘The Riverbed’— Margaryta Golovchenko

Image: Yoko Ono – Mend Piece, 2018 via The Gardiner Museum Margaryta Golovchenko is an undergrad student at the University of Toronto, an editor for Poached Hare, and a book reviewer for Alternating Current. Her work has appeared in publications such as Acta Victoriana, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Contemporary Verse 2, Metatron, and others. She is also the author of…

TWO POEMS – Antonia Cundy

Image: Aaron Burden on Unsplash Antonia Cundy is an postgraduate student at the University of Cambridge, studying on an MPhil in American Literature. She has written (poetry and prose) for The Financial Times, The Economist, and The Oxonian Review, amongst others. Her work can be found at www.antoniacundy.com. The Milkman A skin had formed over her hot chocolate, creasing clinging off her spoon – grandmother’s…

POETRY – Abigail Pearson

Image by impressionist painter, Berthe Morisot. Abigail Pearson is 22 year old writer and poet from Eugene, Oregon. She is the co-founder of Cauldron Anthology, a literary magazine about the wild feminine that draws from mythology. She writes about everything from queer love, to escaping from a cult and my adorable black cat. Her poetry…

ONE POEM – Dan Hogan

Image: Joan Miró – Painting (1927) Dan Hogan is a writer whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The Lifted Brow, Scum Mag, Sydney Morning Herald, and Overland, among others. They are the Program Officer at Writing NSW, and a teacher. Dan is also the director of the independent literary organisation, Subbed In. They tweet @packetofchips…

TWO POEMS – Joe Shaw

Joe Shaw is a recent BA Creative Writing graduate from York St. John University. A curator at heart; he likes to explore the relationship between poetry and visual art practices. Image: Hugh Auchincloss Steers, 1995 Cover image: Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes, The Dream, 1883 [dreams are more radical than our reality.] – Guillermo Gómez Peña i…

ILLUSTRATIONS – Ian Cooke-Tapia

Ian Cooke-Tapia is a Panama-born multidisciplinary storyteller, illustrator, and entrepreneur. His practice focuses on intradisciplinary subject matter as means to explore the fluidity of the rules of our reality, and ignored social narratives. See more of his work here. and find him on twitter and Instagram. An Incomplete Timeline of Isthmian Identit(y/ies) Whichever narrative is…

Lady in the streets, freak in the sheets: challenging the virgin/whore dichotomy on ITV2’s Love Island

Milly Morris likes Foucault and feminism. She is currently chasing a PhD in political science at the University of Birmingham. She is a runner, as well as a lover of chickpeas and Game of Thrones. This essay was originally published on her website during the 2017 season of Love Island. Featured image: Clem Onojeghuo at Unsplash A foreword…

FOUR ARTWORKS – Jacob Courtney

Jacob Courtney is an illustrator currently based in Cardiff. He recently graduated from Cardiff School of Art and Design where he studied BA (Hons) Illustration. His work aims to depict atmospheric and immersive scenes. He is interested in the traces of life found in locations with no people present, and the stories those places tell. This…

ONE POEM – Carl Boon

Image: ‘PARADISE’ © Cecilia Paredes. Courtesy of Galería Blanca Berlin and Photo London Carl Boon lives in Izmir, Turkey, where he teaches courses in American culture and literature at 9 Eylül University. His poems have appeared in many magazines, including Posit, The Maine Review, and Diagram. A Pushcart Prize nominee, Boon recently edited a volume on the sublime in American…

ONE POEM – Keith Moul

Image: ‘Wet Sand’ by Annie Soudain. See more of her work here. Keith Moul’s poems and photos are published widely. Finishing Line Press released a chap called ‘The Future as a Picnic Lunch’ in 2015. Aldrich Press published ‘Naked Among Possibilities’ in 2016; Finishing Line Press released ‘Investment in Idolatry’ in 2017. Misty Circumlocution Canada…

ONE POEM – Anjali Bhavan

Image via Oleg Magni on Pexels Anjali Bhavan is a college student in New Delhi. She likes to write, watch movies, read poems and code, and believes the world to be a far more interesting place that she knows. Inanna Inanna crawls out of the brown of my skin, she emerges from my restlessness and…

TWO POEMS – Wanda Deglane

Image by Rita Kernn-Larsen (1904-1998), Danish surrealist painter Wanda Deglane is a psychology/family & human development student at Arizona State University. Her poetry has been published or forthcoming on Dodging the Rain, Rust + Moth, Anti-Heroin Chic, and elsewhere. She writes to survive. Wanda is the daughter of Peruvian immigrants, and lives with her giant…

ONE POEM – Faith Rhiannon Clarke

Image: Lawrence Alma-Tadema – The Roses of Heliogabalus (1888) Faith Rhiannon Clarke is a Journalism and English Literature graduate based in Cardiff. She is an aspiring International Journalist, especially interested in Middle Eastern affairs and conflict. However, she also has an innate love for literature, and her spare time is spent giving her undivided attention…

SHORT STORY – John Herbert

John Herbert is an English teacher from Brighton, UK, holds a PhD in modernist fiction from the University of Birmingham, and is an alumnus of New Writing South’s Creative Writing Programme. He was Highly Commended for the 2017 Brighton Prize for short fiction and will appear in their anthology this year. In 2018 his work has also…

The Haunted Present: Using the Past as an Emotional Context – Kat Hausler

Photo by Daniel Wander on Pexels Kat Hausler is a graduate of New York University and Fairleigh Dickinson University, where she was the recipient of a Baumeister Fellowship. Her debut novel Retrograde was recently published by Meerkat Press. She writes and translates in Berlin. The Haunted Present: Using the Past as an Emotional Context In James…

TWO POEMS – Joshua Teo

Image: Mattia Serrani on Unsplash Joshua Teo is an undergraduate student of Modern History at the University of St Andrews. He writes for fun and hopes to write something beautiful one day. Ryū-ha The fish does not dream of water. It dreams of legs to walk the earth Or feathered wings to ride the skies; It dreams…

TWO POEMS – Damon Moore

Image: Henri Matisse – Horse, Rider and Clown (Le cheval, l’écuyère et le clown) from Jazz (1947) Damon Moore runs an arts project in Frome, Somerset. He has a particular interest in the narrative style but his short-form poetry has found a home in RAUM, The Literateur, Eyot and Forage amongst others. He is travelling somewhere in Europe…

ONE POEM – Katie Paterson

Image: Gustav Klimt, Bauernhaus mit Birken, 1900 Katie is an actor and writer currently training on the MA Acting course at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. She has performed her poetry at Redgates Theatre, Arcola, and once memorably at Metropolis Strip Club. She is currently developing her solo show ‘Minor Disruptions’. Last Words ‘The birch leaves,…

THREE POEMS – Anne Gill

Anne Gill is a recent graduate from the University of Birmingham, UK and is due to study her MA at Newcastle University next year. She was shortlisted for the Outspoken Prize for Poetry 2018 and was part of the winning slam team at UniSlam 2018. She has performed at events in both the UK and…

Meaning-making in Literature and Life: an Introduction to Existentialism – Elizabeth Ruth Deyro

Photo by Magda Ehlers from Pexels Elizabeth Ruth Deyro is a Filipina writer and editor with a BA in Communication Arts from the University of the Philippines Los Baños. She is the Founding Editor-in-Chief and Creative Director of The Brown Orient and the Fiction Editor of Rag Queen Periodical. Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming from Moonchild…

TWO POEMS – Seán Kennedy

Seán Kennedy is a twenty-two-year-old writer living in Co. Kildare. Since finishing an MA in Irish Literature and Culture at Maynooth University last summer, he has turned to writing poetry in an effort to pass the time productively, or at least creatively. His poem “Brothers of Charity” appeared in online journal Dodging the Rain in March 2018….

ONE POEM – John Bartlett

Image: Ana Mendieta – Silueta de Cohetes (1976) John Bartlett lives on the southern coast of Australia and is the author of three novels, a collection of short stories and an e-book collection of his non-fiction. His poetry has been published in a number of online journals. He blogs regularly at: http://beyondtheestuary.com/ Plastic World It hardly matters there’s a…

PHOTOGRAPHY – Célia Schouteden

Célia Schouteden is a twenty-five year old artist based in Belgium. She’s currently studying at her hometown university, in Liège, to become a clinical psychologist. Since 2016, she has explored herself through analog photography which she’s using as a therapy to help herself with her borderline personality & cyclothymic disorders. She would love to help…

TWO POEMS – Jac Shortland

Jac Shortland is a Cork woman. Her poetry has been published in a diversity of journals and anthologies, including Antiphon, Into the Void, The Cannon’s Mouth, Silhouette Press, A New Ulster and Causeway Cabhsair. She has been long listed for North West Words Poetry 2016 and Over the Edge New Writer of the Year 2017…

THREE POEMS – Gráinne Daly

Image: Helen Frankenthaler – Brown Moons, 1961 Gráinne Daly holds an MA in Creative Writing from UCD. Shortlisted for the Gregory O’Donoghue Poetry Prize, Maeve Binchy UCD Award and winner of Greywood Arts Prize 2017, her work has been published in a number of publications, including Southword Magazine and Ogham Stone Journal. She has completed…

Cat people – Antonia Cundy

Antonia Cundy is an postgraduate student at the University of Cambridge, studying on an MPhil in American Literature. She has written (poetry and prose) for The Financial Times, The Economist, and The Oxonian Review, amongst others. Her work can be found at www.antoniacundy.com. Image: paul morris on Unsplash Cat People On 11th December 2017, The New Yorker published Kristen Roupenian’s short story, ‘Cat Person’,…

SHORT STORY – Anita Goveas

Anita Goveas is British-Asian, based in London, and is fueled by strong coffee and paneer jalfrezi. She was first published in the 2016 London Short Story Prize anthology, and most recently in former cactus, Litro, New Flash Fiction Review, Porridge, and Longleaf Review. She tweets erratically @coffeeandpaneer Image: James Pond on Unsplash Recursion Adhira watched the dog chase itself again….

ONE POEM – Ceinwen E. Cariad Haydon

Image: Mary Kessell – Still Life Under the Sea (1960) © The estate of Mary Kessell Ceinwen E. Cariad Haydon lives in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, and writes short stories and poetry. She has been published in web magazines and print anthologies. These include Fiction on the Web, Literally Stories, Alliterati, Stepaway, Poets Speak (whilst they still can), Three Drops…

SHORT STORY – Meagan Masterman

Image: Dorothea Lange – Clausen Child and Mother c. 1930 via the MOMA Meagan Masterman is a writer from Maine, living in Massachusetts. Her work can be found in Funhouse Magazine, Unbroken Journal, and Maudlin House. She co-edits Reality Hands. Find her online, where she usually is @meaganmasterman Who you are, Alicia Callahan I’ve got a…

POETRY – Priyanka Sacheti

Priyanka Sacheti is a writer based in Bangalore, India. Priyanka previously lived in Sultanate of Oman, United Kingdom, and United States. She has been published in numerous publications with a special focus on art, gender, diaspora, and identity and is presently an editor at Mashallah News. Her literary work has appeared in Berfrois, The Lunchticket, and Jaggery Lit and two of her…